Eggstreme Farming Chicken Guide: Breeds, Pens and Daily Care

Chickens are where every farm starts, and the mechanics you learn on them — pens, feed, trays, licenses — repeat exactly for ducks, geese and turkeys later. This is the complete chicken reference.

The six chicken breeds

From the official market screen (prices fluctuate between visits — see the note below):

Chicken	Egg type	Eggs/hour	Egg size	Price seen
White	White chicken egg	3	Medium	$27.00–$32
Gray	White chicken egg	3	Large	$33.75–$50
Black	Brown chicken egg	2	Medium	$33.25
Rust	Brown chicken egg	3	Medium	$34.20
Black and White	Brown chicken egg	4	Large	$45.60–$76
Blue	Blue chicken egg	2	Medium	$36.80

Each breed needs its egg-type license before the market stocks it — licenses covers the order and costs. Deeper rankings live in best chickens.

The chicken pen

• Capacity: six birds per rented pen. The rental screen shows capacity and the daily cost (chicken pen 2 ran about $3.25/day in launch footage).
• Rent via the management PC, then walk birds in. Each pen has a coop for sleeping and a fenced run.
• Pen 1 is nearest the market/sell machine — the daily walking distance difference is real once you’re hauling trays all day.
• Signs on the pens show which species row is which; the chicken row is separate from duck/goose/turkey rows.
• Pens have lights you can toggle for the evening hours.

The daily chicken routine

1. Morning (from 6:00): sweep the droppings with the broom. It’s the same small mess whether you have two birds or six.
2. Check the hopper and water. Feed packages go in the hopper; water bottles fill the blue container. Water drains faster with more birds — an empty container means missed laying hours.
3. Collect on the hour. Eggs land roughly once per in-game hour; late morning and afternoon are the heavy windows.
4. Fill trays as you go. Trays are per-species — chicken eggs need chicken trays (see egg trays & crates).
5. Sell full trays at the vending machine, or stage them in an Egg Collector once you have one.
6. Glance at health bars while collecting. Hover a bird to see hunger, thirst, health (red) and immunity (green).

Why is my chicken not laying?

The four causes seen in launch footage, in order of likelihood:

1. It’s night. Laying is 6:00–18:00 only. The last window is around 18:00, then everyone sleeps.
2. Empty water or food. Hungry or thirsty birds skip hours. Check the container levels first, every time.
3. Low health. A bird with a drained health or immunity bar can stop producing until treated — medicine is one-use per vial, and its effect wears off over days.
4. It just isn’t on the hour. Lays aren’t perfectly uniform; some birds drop two eggs one hour and skip the next. Count over a full day before assuming a problem.

One launch-week oddity worth knowing: a pen of six sometimes seems to produce “one short” — five eggs at an hour when you expected six. That’s timing jitter, not a missing bird.

Common chicken questions

How many chickens fit in a pen? Six, hard cap.

Can chickens die? Yes — health that hits zero kills the bird, and you dispose of the body in the trash. Medicine and steady food/water prevent it. Details in health & medicine.

Do chickens need darkness or light? Lights exist and toggle, but no light-dependent laying behavior has been observed either way.

Can I mix breeds in one pen? Yes — the pen doesn’t care, but all eggs go into trays by egg type, so mixed pens mean more tray types to manage. Same-egg-type pens (all whites, all browns) are operationally simpler.

Do chickens wander off? They stay in the fenced pen. Occasionally one sleeps outside the coop — cosmetic, not a problem.

Where do I sell chickens? The sell vending machine — not the market. Full walkthrough in how to sell chickens.